Author Opens New Chapter In Life After Taking Chinese Art Lessons

By Judith Kahn

At 70 years of age, Herbert Kohl, an esteemed educator and writer, took an exciting unexpected turn in his life when he walked into the Joseph Fine Arts School on Clement Street.

Kohl had always been intrigued with Chinese painting. It talks to his heart and soul. He likes its grace, dignity and the power it represents. Little did he know that this unanticipated stop would make an immense change in his life. And it came at a time when he was looking for a change - he wanted to try something that he had not done before and could not master.

According to Kohl, doors have been opening his entire life. So, when he came upon Joseph's school that day, he had no hesitation about walking in. He was doing what was second nature to him - opening another door. Little did he know, upon opening this door he would be sent on a voyage which he is still enjoying and which motivated him to write a book, titled "Painting Chinese."

Impressed by both the atmosphere of the school and his conversation with Joseph Fine, he decided to take a course in Chinese Painting. He thought this might be the challenge he was looking for. It turned out he was at least 57 years older than the students in his class, who ranged from 5 to 7 years of age. As he explained in his most recent book, this was just the beginning of his voyage.

When he walked into Joseph's school three years ago, he was tired of the educational dialogue caused by the "no child left behind" and the school district's obsession with testing. To Kohl, this is not what teaching or learning is about. He made an analogy between the painter Joan Miro's vision of painting and his vision of teaching.

Miro said that the gardener prepares the soil, sows the seeds, waters the plant and makes sure the sun is right.

The pleasure of such careful nurturing is the privilege of watching the plant grow: unfolding from a small seed into a beautiful flower, fruit or vegetable.

At the time he walked into the Joseph Fine Arts School, he was teaching a course he created and directed at the University of San Francisco. It was based on the idea of integrating issues of social justice to bring idealistic people into public school teaching. He wanted to fortify them with skills and stamina to make their dreams practical realities.

Students read poems and novels and would discuss the social and political contexts in which the writer worked. Attention was given to issues of class, race and gender as they arose in a book.

As well, questions about the mathematics of world banking and finance were raised, and students focused on the many different mathematical traditions of the world. Kohl said he was having a wonderful time with his 30 students, but in its fourth year the university cut the program. Physically and emotionally drained, it was definitely time to move on and try something new.

Kohl hails from the Bronx and was raised by parents who emigrated from Poland. He started his academic career by teaching sixth graders in Harlem, New York in 1962. Throughout his teaching career, the students he taught, the subjects he taught and the educational settings in which he taught were diverse. He has taught every grade from kindergarten through graduate school.

He ran a storefront school for junior high and high school students and has taught psychology and writing. He also worked as curriculum coordinator for a community school district and was founder and first director of the Teachers and Writers Collaborative. He was a visiting professor at the University of California and taught at a public alternative school in Berkeley.

In addition, he is the author of more than 40 books and has won a national book award for the book "View from the Oak," which he wrote with his wife Judith. Kohl said when he watched Fine teaching, and the children's excitement and commitment to learning, it was magical because he had relearned the excitement and magic of learning.

"There are no mistakes, just efforts and actions that though they might feel like messes, are just stages of growth and with a stroke or two can be turned into something new and unexpected. That what we might call copying a work of art is in the Chinese tradition an act of recreation and transformation if it comes from one's heart, a disciplined brush and wild imagination."

In addition, he learned that it is possible to create a quiet, calm meditative place for painting and, by implication, for learning. If the environment is right, the tasks are challenging.

"If the teachers know their craft and if this all can be wrapped in good feeling and a sense of humor," it can be a very rewarding experience, Kohl remarked.

What delighted him about being in Joseph's class was it was impossible to forget the experience.

Currently, Kohl resides in Point Arena among the Redwoods. He has resumed his lessons with Fine and hopes to take lessons with Janny, Fine's wife, who also teaches at the school. He is still painting and writing. In "Painting Chinese," he remarks that it is wonderful to be older and to have had enough experiences to be able to remember them, condense them, write about them and paint them.

According to Kohl, it is wonderful to perceive your life as a whole, as if it was a Chinese painting.